estimates are 29% higher than the 72,000 deaths from drug overdoses in the previous year.
Brandon Marshall, a Brown University researcher in public health who studies overdose trends, said that “this is a staggering loss human life.”
The country was already suffering from the worst overdose epidemic, but clearly COVID “has greatly exacerbated” the crisis, he said.
Experts said that drug addicts were isolated by lockdowns and other restrictions during pandemics, making it harder for them to seek treatment.
Jordan McGlashen, a victim of a drug overdose, died in his Ypsilanti apartment, Michigan last year. On May 6, McGlashen, the day before his 39th Birthday, was declared dead.
It was very difficult for me to consider the circumstances in which Jordan died. His younger brother Collin McGlashen wrote in an obituary that he was aware of his brother’s drug addiction and said that he felt alone and was suffering emotionally.
Jordan McGlashen died from heroin and fentanyl.
Prescription painkillers were once the main cause of the overdose crisis in America. However, heroin and fentanyl have displaced them. Fentanyl was originally developed to relieve intense pain caused by cancer. However, it is increasingly being sold illegally and mixed with other drugs.
Shannon Monnat, an associate sociology professor at Syracuse University, said that the real driver of overdoses is an increasing poisoned drug supply. She studies geographic patterns in overdoses. Nearly all this rise is due to fentanyl poisoning in some way. Heroin has been contaminated. Cocaine has been contaminated. The methamphetamine has been contaminated.”
According to CDC data, Fentanyl was responsible for more than 60% overdose deaths in the last year.
Monnat stated that there is no evidence to suggest that Americans used drugs more last year. Monnat said that the increase in deaths was more likely to be due to people who were already struggling with addiction. Her research team has heard from many people that they were able to afford more money due to extended unemployment benefits and suspension of evictions. She said that they stockpiled their (drug) supplies when they had money.
The number of overdose deaths is just one aspect of the year that was the most deadly in American history. COVID-19 was responsible for more than 3 million deaths in the United States.
To calculate the 2020 number of drug overdose deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at death certificates. This equates to approximately 11 deaths per hour and an average of more then 250 deaths per day for a total of 93,000.
This is the largest year-to-year increase since 2016, when the count increased by 11,000
Historical context: In 1970, the CDC reported that there were less than 7,200 deaths from overdoses in the United States. This was during a heroin epidemic in cities across the country. Around 9,000 were reported in 1988, at the height of crack’s epidemic.
According to the CDC, drug overdoses rose in all but two states in 2020 according to New Hampshire and South Dakota.
Kentucky’s overdose rate jumped 54% to more than 2,100 last year, compared with just 1,400 in the previous year. California, South Carolina and West Virginia also saw large increases. Vermont saw the greatest jump of 58% but it was smaller — 118 to 182.
Experts don’t expect a significant decline in drug overdose deaths this coming year due to the proliferation of fentanyl. Although national statistics are not yet available for some states, data is emerging that supports their pessimism. Rhode Island reported the highest number of overdose deaths for these months in at least five decades, with 34 in January and 37 February.
Collin McGlashen said that last year was “an extremely dark time”. It began in January when the beloved patriarch died from cancer.
McGlashen stated that Jordan, their brother and musician, was left in a tailspin after the death of their father.
He said, “Someone can do really well for so many years and then suddenly, it’s all over,”
Then came the pandemic. Jordan lost his job. “It was a kind of a last descent.”